More than 7,300 volunteers haul 137 tons of trash off Texas beaches

Less trash than usual found at annual Adopt-A-Beach Spring Cleanup

AUSTIN — Texas beaches may just be getting cleaner, according to reports from Adopt-A-Beach coordinators across the coast.

The 26th Annual Texas General Land Office Adopt-A-Beach Spring Cleanup drew 7,369 volunteers to the Texas coast Saturday. But the good weather and the strong turnout didn't result in more trash than usual, just 137 tons. In fact, many volunteer coordinators reported the beaches were pretty clean when they arrived with their volunteer crews.

"What I hope this means is that folks are starting to get the message that trashing Texas beaches isn't cool," said Jerry Patterson, Commissioner of the General Land Office. "The only way to really address this problem is at the source."

Adopt-A-Beach volunteers' past success can be seen in the mix of trash collected Saturday: cigarette butts, soda cans, beer bottles and beach toys. This mix of trash has changed over the years that Adopt-A-Beach volunteers have walked the beaches When the program started in 1986, the bulk of trash on Texas beaches washed ashore from international ships that simply dumped it overboard. Since then, data collected by Adopt-A-Beach volunteers has helped to pass an international shipping treaty that bans such sloppy practices and requires all oceangoing vessels to dispose of their trash responsibly while in port.

Among the more amazing items volunteers found Saturday were an oil filter with 10 quarts of oil, a bowling ball, a bottle with two Cuban ID cards inside, a hazmat mask, paper and plastic trash from Venezuela, Columbia and Haiti, an aluminum hand held grenade launcher, muriatic acid, a plastic container from Russia and false teeth. Matagorda Beach yielded a message in a bottle launched from Mexico in January. The note, written in English and Spanish, contained an email address and a request to contact the author when the bottle was found.

The Adopt-A-Beach program is one of the most successful all-volunteer efforts in the nation. In the past 26 years, 430,000 Adopt-A-Beach volunteers have picked up more than 8,300 tons of trash from the Texas Gulf Coast.

HNTB Corporation was the lead sponsor for the 26th Annual Adopt-A-Beach Spring Cleanup. Other sponsors included Halliburton, the Harris and Eliza Kempner Foundation, the Newfield Foundation, NOAA Marine Debris Program and Keep Texas Beautiful.

To learn more about items collected at the cleanup, and for information on the health of the Texas coast, visit the Adopt-A-Beach program website at www.texasadoptabeach.org, or contact the Texas General Land Office at 1-877-TXCOAST (1-877-892-6278).